There were no shortage of positive stories emerging from our Saturday card at Sha Tin.
Turnover was notably strong – helped by a competitive card of full fields – and although the next quarter will offer more challenges it is great to see such positive signs as Chinese New Year approaches.
The action on the track delivered several notable newslines, with Vincent Ho riding a double and our latest French import Tony Piccone matching him to win the Jockey Challenge and make it three wins from just four meetings since his arrival in Hong Kong.
However, the story that flew under the radar at the weekend related to the success of horses trained just off Sha Tin’s home turn at Olympic Stables.
The barns at Olympic Stables are spacious and well designed with the sort of private feel that is hard to create amid the hustle and bustle of an intense city like Hong Kong.
Fewer than 12 per cent of our total horse population are trained there at present and yet the three trainers based at Olympic Stables dominated half of the card on Saturday.
Douglas Whyte won with promising youngsters Inner Flame and Farhh Above. Michael Chang scored with Winning Together and Golden Four. And David Ferraris completed one of the more successful days in Olympic Stables’ history when Bear Slam landed the day’s Cup race.
If ever there was a day to illustrate that promising horses will always shine in the hands of the right horsemen this was it and Saturday also showed that Hong Kong’s homegrown handlers remain in fine form.
Championship leader Ricky Yiu struck again with much-improved Preciousship, while his nearest pursuer Francis Lui reduced the gap to six with a double. David Hayes will add further strength to our training ranks when he comes back to Hong Kong later this year and, the way things are going at the moment, the trainers’ table may well have a different look when he returns than many people expected.
Moving on to Wednesday’s action, the Hong Kong Club Challenge Cup Handicap in Race 6 is a Class 4 at 1200m with Loriz, Mehboob, Fantastic Fabio, The Abraxas and Victory In Hand pressing forward to establish a good pace. Wild West Wing and All Best Friends are drawn wide on the C+3 course and will most likely be taken back to find cover.
Victory In Hand showed good improvement with a career best performance in his first try at Happy Valley last month when he got all the favours with an easy lead. This will be a much tougher test as the pace pressure will ramp up and he will need to work early to avoid being trapped wide. He is a win and place chance.
The Abraxas steps back up in trip and figures to get a good run from on the pace. He showed improvement when adding blinkers two starts back and is a place chance. Mehboob is in top form and has been very consistent at Happy Valley this season. The speedy Loriz is also a place chance in a very competitive race along with Travel Datuk, who will be closing late.
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